California regulators gave San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. andits partner, San Francisco-based Bechtel Enterprises, the okay tobuild a $450 million, 880 MW natural gas-fired power plant, theDelta Energy Center, near the Dow Chemical facility in Pittsburg,CA, an industrial town in the East San Francisco Bay area.Construction is expected to get under way this summer, bringing tothree the number of merchant plants approved by Californiaauthorities, all involving Calpine.

As part of a commitment to build three or four new plantstotaling about 2,000 MW in the San Francisco Bay area, Calpine andBechtel filed in December 1998 for approval from the CaliforniaEnergy Commission to build the plant, one of two now approved forPittsburg, CA.

Slated to use an average of 130 MMcf/d of natural gas, the DeltaCenter plant is several hundred megawatts larger the Calpine’stypical merchant plants. Delta Center’s larger size is due mostlyto the tie-in with Dow Chemical and having its facilities as abaseload for both electricity and steam from the power plant.

“This is the first one of the joint ventures with Bechtel to belicensed,” said Calpine spokesperson Katherine Potter. Under thearrangement, Bechtel constructs the plants and Calpine operatesthem and markets the power. Each hold a 50% interest in the plants.

Following a 30-day comment period on the 5-0 energy commissionvote to okay the Delta Energy Center project, preparation for thestart of construction in June will get under way. By then, Calpinewill have three merchant plants under construction in California,all of which are expected to come on-line by mid-2002 “in time tohelp offset anticipated system strains in northern California,”according to Calpine.

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